


Flirt

by johnny cade (johnnycake)



Series: Switchblades and Leather [22]
Category: The Outsiders (1983), The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-24 21:58:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14962940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/johnnycake/pseuds/johnny%20cade
Summary: Sylvia comes onto Johnny while Dallas is in jail. Steve isn't having it.





	Flirt

**Author's Note:**

> random, but gone by ionnalee is a johnny cade song. this was mentioned in the book and idk why i never thought to write it until now, but!! here it is!!

At this point, no one could remember what Dallas got himself thrown in jail for this time. It was the third time almost in a row in about six months and everyone was silently wondering when he would get sent to prison instead. And the weirdest part was, everyone kne'w Dallas hated going to jail, so it made sense to none of them why he continually did things that he knew would get him sent there. Johnny had a theory – that Dallas liked hurting sometimes, so he made sure he did – but he didn’t say it out loud. He had a feeling if that _were_ the case, he wouldn’t want anyone else to know.

The whole gang knew that it was hard for Johnny to be apart from Dallas, even if he knew that he was going to be coming back eventually, so they all went out of their way to invite him out with them, even if he might not fit in in the situation. Johnny didn’t particularly mind. He kept his mouth shut and sat in the corner and just enjoyed the company, trying not to think about all of the horrible things that could happen to Dallas while he was in jail.

At the moment, however, he was sitting at home, watching it rain outside, his chin in his hand. He could hear thunder rumbling distantly and he was trying to figure out where exactly the gang might be, so he could go find them. At the moment, his parents were out of the house – his mother was out grocery shopping and his father was at work – but that wouldn’t last long. If he wasn’t gone by the time his mother got back...his eyes flicked briefly towards the broom, leaning against the wall in the corner.

He swallowed hard. He knew exactly what would happen. He shuddered thinking about it.

Headlights swung across the living room, pulling his gaze back out the window and he saw a car parking itself on the curb by his house. Even through the rain, he recognized the car as belonging to Steve. As he watched, Steve jumped out of the car, his shoulders hunched against the rain as he ran up the front steps to the porch and knocked on the door.

Johnny got up and opened the door, the sound of the rain filling the living room as he did so, the thunder sounding a little less distant too. There was an overhang around the porch, keeping it and Steve dry as Steve waved at him and said, “Hey Johnnycake! What’re you up to?”

He shook his head, his eyes going briefly to the couch he’d been sitting on a moment before as he said, “Not much. Just sittin’ around.”

“Well, Soda, Evie, Sandy, and I were gonna go to the abandoned barn on the edge of town. Wanna come with?” Steve had a small smile on his face and his hands stuffed into his pockets. There wasn’t any of the usual cockiness and arrogance that he displayed around the rest of the gang and that was how Johnny knew he was being genuine.

Johnny gave a small smile and nodded. “Yeah,” he said softly. “Yeah, that’d be real cool.”

Steve smiled back and said, “Get whatever you need. I’ll wait in the car.”

As the door swung shut behind Steve and he went back down the front steps to his car, Johnny thanked whoever was listening for his sudden appearance. He grabbed his pack of cigarettes and matchbook off the end table by the couch before darting out the door, down the steps, and getting into the back of Steve’s car beside Sodapop.

“Hey Johnnycake!” Soda said as he shut the car door and Steve started driving at a breakneck pace out of the neighborhood and towards the edge of town.

“Hey Johnny!” Sandy and Evie chorused as well, Sandy looking around Soda and Evie craning her neck over the back of the front seat.

Johnny waved shyly to the girls as he pulled a cigarette out of the pack in his hand and put it between his lips. He lit the cigarette using the matchbook in his other hand. He took a deep breath in, breathing the smoke into his lungs. Then he rolled down the back window slightly and blew it into the breeze, watching the wind of the car whip it into the air, dissipating it much faster than it would have been otherwise. Johnny watched the world rush by outside, doing this several more times as he did so. He listened to Steve and Soda yell at each other and Sandy and Evie talk more quietly to one another. He listened to the wind whip around the cabin of the car as they drove faster than the speed limit.

He stared at the sky, covered by thick, gray rain clouds.

He thought about Dallas.

The weather reflected his mood.

The abandoned barn was technically off limits. It wasn’t on anyone’s land in specific, but the government did own the land that the barn was on and more than once the gang had gotten chased out of the barn by cops driving by, but that hadn’t stopped them from going. It was the perfect place to hang out together, sheltered from the elements. And the way the gang saw it, they were only in trouble if they got caught.

Even though the barn was on the outskirts of Tulsa, it still didn’t take very long to get to it. Johnny stared at the barn as they came upon it. It looked ancient and had looked that way for as long as he could remember. It looked only faintly red now, most of the paint having been peeled away. It looked like it had been through countless storms and had maybe even been put back together after a tornado blew it away at some point. It was too bad it was so far from town. If it hadn’t been, he might’ve come there to spend the night sometimes instead of staying out in the lot.

Steve pulled around to the back of the barn and when they got out, they all helped to cover the car with fallen branches and leaves, hoping to disguise it if any cops happened to pass by.

“Damn,” Steve said, crossing his arms over his chest and watching Evie and Sandy finish arranging the last branch as Soda threw a few more leaves on top of their handiwork. “That looks real hidden, but if it keeps rainin’ it’s gonna mess up my car.”

“It ain’t even your car!” Soda replied as he headed towards Steve and Johnny standing near the entrance to the barn. “It’s your old man’s car!”

“It’s gonna be my car for real one day,” Steve replied, holding the door of the barn open for everyone. “I don’t wanna screw it up before it even becomes mine.”

Everyone laughed, but in the back of all of their minds, they couldn’t help thinking that if they were Socs, they wouldn’t even have to worry about that. Not only would they not inherit their father’s car, they would be bought one that was all their own by their father. But none of their fathers were Socs because none of their fathers could afford to buy themselves new cars, let alone their children.

No one said it, but everyone thought that their being poor had to do with their lives sucking so bad. And, in a lot of cases, that was true, but Johnny thought privately that his parents would be horrible no matter how much money they had. They wouldn’t buy him his own car no matter how much money they had either. They’d just keep it for themselves and spend as much of it as they could on booze and things they wanted.

He often thought that maybe it was a good thing they _weren’t_ rich.

He didn’t know how he could even possibly know this, but he had an odd feeling that they would be even worse if they were rich.

Then they’d have the money to indulge in themselves as much as they wanted.

The thought alone made him shudder and he had to dig his nails into his palms, his eyes squeezed shut, until he remembered where he was and he saw the barn around him again.

Everyone was headed toward a pile of hay on the other side of the barn. Johnny knew that buried beneath the hay was a radio, a cooler full of beer, and a few packs of cards. Soda got to the pile first, having practically skipped across the barn and, after a few brief moments of digging through the hay, he pulled out the cards and the radio. Johnny noticed he didn’t pull out the beer. He knew Soda didn’t drink, but he also knew that the gang had collectively banned himself from drinking as well. He knew why and, as much as he hated to admit it, it was for a good reason. Still. He didn’t like it any less.

Steve dug out the cooler anyway and grabbed himself a beer. He offered the cooler to Evie and Sandy before putting it back. Evie took some. Sandy didn’t. Johnny couldn’t help smiling at that. Nearly every greaser girl drank when offered. The fact Sandy didn’t made him feel all the more that her and Soda were meant to be together.

Steve had just opened one of the packs of cards and was explaining a game to everyone when the door of the barn opened again, silencing everyone instantly.

No one said anything, but Johnny knew they were all thinking it was the cops. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Steve hide the beer he was drinking beneath the hay and saw Evie do the same. Sandy gave Soda a nervous glance and Soda only swallowed hard, but his hands were clenched into white-knuckled fists.

Then the figures came around a bale of hay. Three figures that Johnny recognized.

Tim Shepherd, Curly Shepherd, and Sylvia, Dally’s on-and-off girlfriend; Johnny wasn’t sure which it was at the moment. Tim and Curly looked like another pair of greasers, but Sylvia was dressed to impress. She wore stilettos and a leather jacket. Her face was painted so bright with makeup Johnny thought he’d be able to see her in the dark. Her nails were as red as her lips and she wore fishnets and a leather skirt. Johnny couldn’t tell if her shirt beneath her jacket was a tank top or a regular t-shirt, but he was willing to bet real money it was the former.

Sylvia liked attention more than she liked just about anything else, so she tended to wear what she thought would get her the most of that.

“What’s this?” she said with mock surprise, her hands out as she walked towards them, her lips a perfect red O. “How come y’all didn’t invite us?”

Johnny looked at Steve and Soda out of the corner of his eye and saw they looked grim. He looked at Curly and Tim and noticed they looked just as grim. No one really liked Sylvia because of how she treated Dallas and how she treated people in general. This thought alone made Johnny wonder what exactly she’d done to convince Tim and Curly to drive her here to begin with. It also made him wonder why she was here. Dallas was still in jail. Everyone else here was taken, except for him. Not that that mattered with her.

Her eyes slid to him almost as if on cue and she grinned. The smile looked fake even from a distance and when she said in a voice laced with equally fake enthusiasm, “Johnnycake?!” Johnny wished more than anything he could disappear into the hay and never reappear again.

But he didn’t get his wish and Sylvia squealed with delight, jumping in place before dashing, even in her heels, to the pile of hay everyone was sitting on. She jumped and threw her arms around him, making him tense up and freeze in place. He felt the hay sink around them and wondered if Sylvia would just suffocate him in the hay without realizing it.

Finally, she pulled away and began smoothing down his hair, though it was covered in grease. He didn’t say anything, his jaw clenched tight, not looking at her, but she seemed to have plenty to say to him. It was as if they were old friends who hadn’t seen each other in ages. Sylvia had to tell him every little detail of her life since she saw him last. He wasn’t even sure when that had been, but he was starting to realize as she looped her arm through his, talking without caring if he was listening, that it hadn’t been long enough.

Eventually, she slowed down enough to notice everyone else was silent, not looking at her, and Steve was quietly playing solitaire with himself. “Are y’all playin’ a game?” she asked.

Steve blinked and looked up. “We were just about to play whist,” he said in a monotone.

“Ooo!” Sylvia exclaimed excitedly, snuggling up next to Johnny, ignoring how he flinched. “How do you play? Can I play with y’all?”

There wasn’t really a polite way for them to say no, so Steve explained the game, dealt her a hand, and the game began. Johnny didn’t play. He was too preoccupied with the fact that Sylvia wouldn’t stop touching him. It didn’t matter how many times he pulled his arm back or moved, she would just reattach herself moments later, not even commenting on the fact they’d both moved.

This went on for several hours, the games changing as the hours went by and the beer in cooler vanishing much more quickly than anyone had thought it would. Eventually, Curly and Tim wanted more beer, but no one else wanted to go out and get any, so they volunteered. There was a liquor store just up the street and, though neither one of them were old enough to buy alcohol, they knew the person who ran the store. They’d be back with more alcohol in no time.

The game everyone was playing now was poker and Johnny was smoking his fourth cigarette in a row, trying to play the game in an attempt to distract himself from Sylvia. Even the other girls seemed really uncomfortable with Sylvia’s behavior and once she won the third game in a row – mostly because no one else was paying enough attention to beat her – Steve threw down his cards and said something that sounded vaguely like, “Y’know what, that’s it,” before he crossed the space separating him from Sylvia and pulled her to her feet by the elbow.

“Steve, what the hell?” Sylvia gasped out as she staggered to her feet.

“You know _exactly_ what the hell,” Steve hissed, pulling her to the side, but not enough that everyone couldn’t hear exactly what was being said.

“Well, _clearly_ , I don’t, so explain.”

“That’s _Johnny_. He’s off limits.”

“To who?” Sylvia spat back.

“To you,” Steve retorted. “You have no idea the shit he’s been through and if you try any of _your_ shit on him, I swear to god, Sylvia, I will beat you to into the dirt with my own bare hands.”

Sylvia scoffed and Johnny bet she was rolling her eyes. “Yeah, right.”

“Listen to my voice and tell me if I’m lying.”

Johnny looked at Steve at that. Steve looked cold, furious, more angry than Johnny had ever seen him in his life. And Sylvia looked surprised, almost scared, of what she saw in the boy across from her. She had her arms crossed over her chest and she kept them that way, frowning and mumbling under her breath, “Fine.” Before turning on her heel and stalking out of the barn.

Everyone seemed to let out a collective sigh of relief once she was gone.

“You okay, Johnnycake?” Steve asked, coming back over to sit by him. His voice was soft.

Johnny nodded in response. He wasn’t looking at Steve anymore.

“Don’t listen to her, okay?”

Johnny looked at Steve again at this. Steve had that serious look on his face again.

“She’s bad news, Johnny,” he went on. “She’s always screwin’ with Dally. Don’t let her screw with you too, okay? I told her to leave you alone, but...that ain’t gonna do much if I’m not there. And don’t go around other girls like her neither, okay? You-you got enough goin’ on. You don’t need that.”

No one said anything. They all just stared at their cards, waiting for Tim and Curly to get back, so they could play a drinking game Steve had heard about from a friend.

Johnny had no intention of ever getting anywhere near the realm of close with Sylvia.

Besides he had no reason to. Out of Sylvia and Dallas, it wasn’t Sylvia he was interested in.

**Author's Note:**

> i rly liked how this turned out so yeah!! enjoy!! <3


End file.
